Tormaresca

Tormaresca’s History and Philosophy

Large-scale producers of wine are anything but uncommon in Apulia – it should sufficient to cite the numerous cooperative wineries which can group together close to 1,0000 small holders, or the estates, many of which still belong to noble or patrician families whose latifundum (to use the Latin term) once covered what could be termed small fiefdoms and even today extend over very sizeable parts of the region.

Tormaresca, however, though comparable in dimension to these productive realities, has been, from the start, a different sort of operation. Although in the new millennium Puglia has attracted significant investments from the north, Tormaresca was the first of this type: it began with the purchase by Antinori of the vineyards first planted by the Gancia sparkling wine house of Piedmont, to which were added an even larger spread of vineyard property in the south, at San Pietro Vernotico in the province of Brindisi. Different soils and climatic conditions, different grapes, different wines and objectives as well. But with a common thread: the conviction that the region could produce well made wine at affordable prices and that selections of a  superior could also be made.

The wines of Tormaresca

A well calculated analysis of the possibilities and prospects, as the past twenty years have demonstrated. The numbers are indeed there: the 950 acres of vineyards are, in fact,  capable of producing important volumes of wine: 500 thousand bottles of the regular Chardonnay, close to 350 thousand bottles of a blend of Negroamaro, Primitivo, and Cabernet, over 200 thousand bottles of Fichimori, a red wine “to be drunk cool”, Negroamaro and Syrah, the indigenous together with the international to indicate that cultural and technical barriers simply do not exist.

And the crus, in their turn, show that quantity and quality are by no means in conflict: Pietrabianca, a fine blend of Chardonnay and Fiano;  Roycello, a Fiano-based white wine of real character,; Masseria Maime and Torcicoda, the lovely  selections, respectively, of Negroamaro and Primitivo. And best of all, the outstanding Aglianico, Bocca di Lupo, from the white soils of Minervino Murge, proof indeed that Campania and Basilicata do not have a hammerlock on great wines from this exceptional grape.

Bocca di Lupo